NEW ORLEANS -- A U.S. District Court judge sentenced a plumbing subcontractor to over two years in prison for conspiring to bribe a state official.
United States District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon sentenced 69-year-old Harry Labiche to 27 months in prison. He'll have to serve two years of supervised release. He has already paid back $200,000 in restitution.
Labiche was charged alongside 52-year-old Jeffery Bentley, a former project engineer with the Louisiana transportation department who oversaw the widening and improvements to Interstate 10 in Jefferson Parish.
According to court documents, Labiche conspired with Bentley to charge $323,000 for cleaning pipes on the interstate, but the actual cost was a little under $29,000.
Both Bentley and Labiche pleaded guilty to the charges on October 15, 2009.
53-year-old Albert Andre Jr. and 38-year-old Jason Adrian Guy, both employees of the plumbing prime contractor, were also charged in the case. They pleaded guilty in court in October as well.
